E183 – 101 Guide to Writing Blog Posts

We do get some great ideas and eventually we get to them. Long ago Chuck sent a great idea to Mat and sadly it has just taken us awhile to get to it.

Hopefully this episode and write up answer Chuck's question (if a year or two late!).

Start With Outlines

It sounds simple but so many just jump to trying to write everything with no clear direction or goal. When you go on a trip do you likely think about these things:

Goal of the TripTrip BudgetWho is all going on the tripPossible DestinationsMode of Travel (flying, driving, boat, walking)How Long is the Trip?

Seems simple and thought out right? So why not do the same with content?

What is main topic?Who is this for?What is the goal of the content?How long is the content going to be or need to be? Does it even matter?What are the sub topics?What questions should be answered?What assets and material is already created that can be leveraged?What assets and other content can we link too?

Reuse Internal Assets

Mat gives the example of how he approached writing Podcasting Beginners Guide: How and Why You Should Start Podcasting with an outline and past assets.

Reuse presentationsUse internal documentsUse sales or marketing collateralReuse video and audio content if you have any

The goal is to NOT reinvent the wheel every single time if you don't have too.

Use the Internet. Find Questions People Ask.

Do your research to understand what questions people have that relate to your topic. Do your due diligence to really understand what people want to know about the topic you are going to write about.

Answer the PublicSEMRushQuoraYahoo Answers (have fun as this site can get interesting)Search Bing/Google for keywords and see what People Also Ask or related searches appear.Look at your site search data if covering a service/product page.Look at other pieces of content and topics you have covered for sub topics, questions and places to link too.Talk to your sales and customer service teams. What questions do people ask them?

Keyword Research

Now take all of this and dig into keyword research. Here are some past episodes that dig into Keyword Research.

Unique Ways to Do Keyword ResearchCompetitive Research Beyond Just KeywordsKeyword Tools for Trends and Shopping

Content Formatting

When you start writing think about what formatting might be needed. Is this a content heavy piece? Is this mostly visual with just short bits that support or is this something people are going to scan so you need bullet points.

Content's Purpose

We can cover this but really Orbit Media's Website Content Template is super detailed and great. If you have never looked at it do check it out.

Think about social sharing, what users want, what the goal of the content is, who you are targeting, and just really think through WHY you are creating this content.

Full Transcription

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your host, Matt scintilla and Dave roar. Hey guys, excited to have you join us on another one of these businesses of digital podcast episodes. And we got Dave over there and how you doing my friend?

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:19] I am going good, sir.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:21] So, um, I'm almost, uh, it's almost embarrassing.

I don't know if embarrassing is the right word or, or funny. Or whatever word you want to use, but, uh, the topic today was something that, uh, you know, it was a idea given to us, uh, given to me specifically by Chuck Reynolds, over a wait for it year and a half ago.

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:43] Probably maybe longer. Maybe not quite

Matt Siltala: [00:00:46] as long.

Yeah. Let's just go with a year

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:49] and a half. Let's just say a year and a half. Cause it's probably like two and a half. I don't know.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:53] Uh, it was interesting because he was tweeting about something and, uh, He had just mentioned to me,